Howdy folks, here's a challenge problem to get you going during the summer doldrums... for those with an inclination to archaeology SW development of course/
I've finally completed the SandMatrix (soon at a TOS near you), which as its name should imply is a nice compendium of Matrix programs and routines. Its main feature is that it includes all the Advantage matrix functions, so yes it's a bank-switched module pretty much like the Advantage itself was.
I added a nice bunch of matrix operations, (MLN, MEXP, MSQRT, MPWR) but one program I gave up on was to calculate the p-th. root of a matrix. So here's the challenge (and also request) for those more apt than me at these affairs: write a FOCAL program to calculate the p-th. root of a matrix, using as many Advantage Matrix functions as possible.
The algorithm is described in JM Baillard's site:
http://hp41programs.yolasite.com/matrixop.php
scroll down within the page until you see the corresponding section (#13).
If you try your hand at it you'll soon find out that with the advantage matrix function set it's often more about managing the Alpha register than the actual data registers and algorithms. This may be why so few and far in between programs were written in its heyday for it?
Looking forward to seeing your solutions...
Cheers,
'AM
Edited: 10 Aug 2013, 1:17 a.m. after one or more responses were posted